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Best Video Baby Monitors of 2018 - Rated and Reviewed

The video baby monitor is one of the most common purchases by new parents (for our review of sound-only baby monitors, click here). They are super comforting when you want to keep an eye on your baby while he or she falls asleep, if they fuss during the night, or just for peace of mind when you don't want to open the door and risk waking your sleeping angel. Traditional baby monitors were audio only, allowing parents to listen in on activity.

Before our in-depth reviews, here is a summary of our results:

Nowadays nearly all parents splurge for the wireless video baby monitor, since it is only slightly more expensive than the audio-only ones, and allows you to see what's going on in the nursery during both day and night. All the major brands, and all the ones we recommend here, are equipped with night vision technology so you can watch your baby even when the room is completely dark. Our hands-on testing and focus groups with moms revealed the following features that moms found critical for achieving the best baby monitor reputation: Clarity of Daytime and Nighttime Vision, Portable Base Unit with Rechargeable Battery and Good Range, Adjustable Camera Pan/Tilt/Zoom, Interchangeable Camera Lenses, User Friendly, Two-way Intercom, Encrypted Communications, Reliability, and Extendable to Multiple Cameras. For details about how we evaluated each of these factors when finding the best baby monitor of 2018, scroll down to the bottom of this article.

The Best Baby Monitors for 2018:

#1. Infant Optics DXR-8 3.5" Wireless Video Baby Monitor. This is the #1 best baby monitor on our list, and on many of the major baby product websites. It's the Cadillac (or Lexus?) of baby monitors, and has tons of fantastic features. In our testing, we found the video display to be very high quality. We also thought it had great range and good battery life when it's not plugged in. Bells and whistles abound: this unit has the remotely adjustable pan/tilt/zoom camera, integrated two-way intercom system, baby room temperature monitor, the ability to do audio-only (camera off), and encrypted wireless communication. That adjustable pan allows you to pivot the camera remotely up to 270-degrees left-right, and the adjustable tilt allows you to pivot the camera up to 120-degrees up and down. Super convenient when the camera is positioned close up and your baby moves to the other side of the crib, or the camera gets accidentally bumped or repositioned during the day. The DXR-8 is also expandable up to 4 cameras to place in various locations in your home; extra cameras are here, and you just press a button on the receiver to toggle between the various camera locations. We also found that the menu is very user friendly and it's easy to take advantage of all the advanced functions. But you will pay for all this greatness, coming in around $165-175. There is also a relatively inexpensiveadd-on wide angle lensthat gives you better viewing angles for up-close scenes (like if you place the camera along the edge of the crib). Some cons include: an audible beep when you turn the unit off (only on the base unit, not on the camera), which might wake your partner when you quickly turn the unit on/off just to check on your baby in the middle of the night. Want something about half the price with fewer features? Check out the earlier version of this baby monitor: the Infant Optics DXR-5, also a great option for a little less cash.

#2. Samsung SEW-3043W Bright View HD Video Baby Monitor. This is the second most expensive and second best baby video monitor on our list (coming in just under $250), and there is a lot to love about it. First, it has the Samsung reliability and quality control, making it a long-lasting baby monitor that isn't likely to drop signals in the middle of the night. Second, it has a large 5" display with high definition 720p resolution. Third, it has the two-way intercom that allows you to not only hear but also to speak to your baby. Fourth, it has automatic voice activation so if your baby fusses or says something, the screen will turn on and alert you that something's up. It also has a pan-tilt-zoom camera, selectable music/lullabies and a night light on the camera (you can turn on/off remotely), and is expandable up to 4 cameras with just the one display. With all these awesome features, why is it second on our list? In our side-by-side comparison of the Infant Optics and this Samsung, we found the Infant Optics to come out ahead in several regards. First, let's talk about a few advantages of the Samsung: it has a larger screen than the Infant Optics, selectable music, the nightlight, and is expandable up to 4 cameras that you can view simultaneously on the single screen (you can buy the extra cameras here). That's a lot of great features. However, we noticed a few disadvantages relative to the Infant Optics that you might find important. First, even though Samsung touts 900-ft range, we noticed that when we went outside the signal dropped repeatedly in our back or front yards; it was quite good, however, when going up to the third floor or basement while still inside the house. Second, the Infant Optics has the baby room temperature monitor, which we found useful during a few summer nights when we didn't realize how warm it was getting in the baby's room. Third, even though the Infant Optics screen is smaller, we found it to be a bit faster and more responsive as a touch screen, and a bit brighter as a monitor. The two night vision capabilities were about the same. With all these limitations, we're surprised that the Samsung is quite a bit more expensive than the Infant Optics.

#3. Babysense (or Smilism) Video Baby Monitor.Here is a great bang-for-the-buck baby video monitor that has some great features. It is sold under two different brand names, one is Babysense, and the other is Smilism. We purchase both, and they were basically exactly the same other than the different logos. We're assuming they are the same company selling under two different brand names, but we can't be sure. Let's begin with the "bang" part of bang-for-the-buck. This baby monitor has a lot of good feasures, including two-way intercom, room temperature monitoring, "eco" mode that keeps the screen off until it hears your baby make a sound, remote zoom, and a few music (lullaby) options. It is also expandable up to 4 cameras, using the same base unit. From the base unit, you can cycle through which camera you want to view at any given time; you cannot view them all simultaneously on the same base unit (like picture-in-picture). We really liked the eco mode, and also liked that on the top of the unit there is a little flashing light to reassure you that it's on during eco mode, even though the screen is off. So there are a lot of great features here, especially for the low price of only about $75! That's right, only about $75, and each add-on camera is about $40. So there's a great deal for a nicely featured camera. What are the missing features? Well, the remote tilt and pan function was not included, so you have to position the camera the right way in your baby's room or you're out of luck in the middle of the night. Second, in our testing it took a bit too much time to cycle between each of the cameras: the screen would turn white and you need to wait several seconds for the other camera to show on the screen. This same white screen happens during start-up of the unit. We also weren't totally impressed by the range of the base unit. It works great if you're 1-2 rooms away, but if you go upstairs or several rooms away, the signal drops intermittently. Even with those little downfalls, this is a great bang-for-the-buck baby video monitor with some good features and reliability. We've been using it for 8 months now and it's still going strong with no issues.

#4. Avent SCD630 Digital Video Baby Monitor. Relatively new to the market, this baby monitor has some really great features. Avent has a long history of making quality products, including their great (non-video) DECT monitor, and this one is no exception. When we unpacked this baby monitor, it took us about 20 seconds to set up. We put the screen unit in the dining room and the camera in the nursery. Plug both of them in and you're off to the races. The screen looks very good, with a high resolution 720p, and pretty good night vision. If you can't see closely enough, you can remotely zoom in by about 2x; but note that if it's not lined up perfectly this won't be so helpful since you can't removely pan or tilt the camera to get your baby into view. Some additional features include private, secure connection, and very clear sound so you can hear your baby's every little peep. One of our favorite features was the ECO mode, which saves power in the screen unit by shutting off the screen and sound. Only when it detects a sound from your baby will it turn on to notify you. This is a great feature when you're using the hand-held screen unit with battery only, unplugged from the charger. Though we'd probably never need it, you can also remotely turn on some soothing lullabies (twinkle-twinkle, rock-a-bye baby, etc). Limitations? Well, it doesn't seem like you can add multiple cameras, and the video quality isn't quite on par with some of our better-ranked units. Overall, however, a highly recommended video monitor that deserves its place on this best baby monitor list, from a company with a good track record of making safe and reliable baby products.

#5. Hello Baby Wireless Video Baby Monitor. If initial impressions mean anything, this is definitely one of the best baby monitors on the market. It has some fantastic features, and is offered at a great price point around $70! Here are some of the best features: first, it has very clear daytime video and crystal clear sound. Using 2.4Ghz communications, like most others on this list, it does a great job connecting, staying connected, and providing superb sound quality. It also is expandable with additional cameras - up to 4 additional cameras to be exact, which means you can really get one of these everywhere. Need one in the playroom, nursery, by the bassinet? Having up to 4 cameras connected is awesome, and the base station provides the easy ability to switch which camera you're looking at. Of course, it only comes with one out of the box, but you can buy extra cameras for about $40 each (see some here at Amazon). We also liked that there is no complicated setup like with some of the IP cameras on this list, which means that there is no connecting to your internet router, or trying to get a phone app to connect. Of course, that also means you can only watch from the base station, not on your phone. About that base station. You can control whether you want video and sound, or sound only, and you can also remotely zoom in on your baby as needed (only 2 zoom levels though), but you cannot remotely pan or tilt the camera. There is a 2-way intercom so you can talk to baby, or play one of the included lullabies. With the screen on, we were able to get the base station's battery to last for about 7 hours, and with just sound the battery lasted for about 11 hours. So definitely long enough for nap times during the day! Like many of the other ones on this list, you can put it into standby mode and have it voice activate automatically when the camera's microphone hears something in the room (like a fussy baby). We thought this feature worked really well, and wasn't overly-sensitive and false alarming all night, which could get really annoying. So there are a lot of things to love about this baby video monitor. With such a low price, the feature list is obviously limited. We also thought the nighttime video quality really left something to be desired. We kept trying to increase the brightness to help, but it still was pretty poor relative to other units on this list. Finally, when we first reviewed this system we purchased 3 of them. After 1.5 years, only 1 of them is still working, 1 of them is a bit glitchy from time to time, and the other is working just fine. So we see some reliability and consistency issues with these baby video monitors, and that's the primary reason that it's not higher up on our list. In any event, we do recommend this camera, especially given the overall bang for the buck. But given how low the bucks are, don't expect any miracles, or to be buying something to last you until you have grandchildren!

#6. Project Nursery 5" Video Baby Monitor System.If we picked a winner based on features alone, this would be much higher up on the best baby monitor list! The folks at Project Nursery really pulled out all the stops with this feature-packed video monitor. Here are some of the stand-out features: remote camera pan and tilt, two-way audio intercom, infrared night vision, secure (encrypted 2.4GHz) wireless connection, motion alerts, lullaby music, convenient unintrusive sleep modes, low or high temperature warning, pairing for up to 4 cameras, accurate low battery warning system, and excellent battery life. But even with all of that, there's something really awesome and unique about this baby monitor: in addition to the huge 5" screen (there's also a 4.3" version for a bit lower price), it also comes with a 1.5" mini video monitor that you can take with you! Put it on your waist, on the kitchen counter, on your wrist (using the included strap!), or on a table or desk while you do work. You name it, we found this mini video monitor aspect super versatile, with high quality resolution and color video, and probably worth the added cost. Speaking of cost, having all these awesome features and the nifty extra monitor comes at a hefty cost, as this is the most expensive video monitor system on our list, coming in at just under $300. Is it worth it? Well, in our testing the mini monitor had a battery life of about 7 hours when fully charged, which we were really impressed with. The larger "parent" monitor is usually plugged in (like on a bedside table), but on battery mode we got it to run overnight without charging for about 14 hours. That's really game-changing battery life for such a large-screen video baby monitor! So some high quality lithium-ion batteries went into making these monitors, and it shows. The color screen and audio quality were also very high on both units. Out of the box, setup was pretty simple, and all parts appear to be high quality and well made. So with all those positives, why isn't this #1 on our list!? Well, it costs almost twice as much as some or our other high-ranking video monitors; it has the features to back up that added cost, but it seems a little excessive for us. Second, it has the remote camera pan/tilt, but we found that when the camera is tilted down too much the infrared night vision feature doesn't work so well (there's a glare/reflection). We needed to re-position it in our nursery so that it wasn't pointing down at such an extreme angle; we suspect this won't be an issue in most cases. Finally, we tried to get both the large "parent" monitor to work at the same time as the mini monitor, but couldn't get them to both show video simultaneously. We understand that may not be a common use case, but might be nice for parents to be in different locations with both being able to monitor the baby's activity. Again, not a huge issue. Overall, this is an excellent baby monitor system with only some minor drawbacks. Worth the cost? We'll leave that up to you: if you want these awesome features, it's probably worth every penny! Update: So it's been about 6 months now, and we've noticed two things worth pointing out. One is that the cameras disconnect intermittently and have a real hard time reconnecting; this has happened in the middle of the night a few times, which was concerning. Second is that the battery life has declined quite a bit since when it was new, now only lasting a few hours off the charger. (FTC Disclosure)

#7. Cocoon Cam Baby Breathing and Video Monitor. This is a nice new addition to our best video baby monitor list, with some nice advanced features that make it quite a bit more than just a baby video monitor. Unlike the above systems, this baby monitor uses your own smart phone rather than an external screen. So instead of moving the screen around the house, like from your bedroom to living room and kitchen, you can simply fire up the app and see what's going on instantly, no matter where you are. In the bathroom? No problem. Out on a date night and want to check in on what the baby sitter's up to? No problem. Just open the app on your phone (Apple or Android) and it will connect to the camera in just a couple seconds and show you a live streaming video feed (with audio) of your sleeping baby. In our testing, we thought the video quality was very good in both daylight and night vision conditions. It was 720p high definition which helped with clarity, though the video feed did become a bit choppy at points when testing on a network other than our home wifi. That's not surprising, and is just like any other live streaming video. One cool thing about the app is that we could minimize it and still have the audio playing, so you can hear everything from your baby's room while doing something completely different; in that regard, it operates a bit like a music player (iTunes, Spotify, etc). Installation of the system was pretty easy, though a bit more involved than others because of its unique features. First, you install the app on your phone and register with Cocoon Cam. Plug in your camera and use the app to scan the QR code on the back of the camera. That will get the camera and your app working together. Then, you need to mount the camera on the wall of the nursery, about 5 feet above the baby. Don't try to put it on a dresser or edge of the crib. Mount it on the wall so that it's pointing down at your sleeping baby and can see all 4 corners of the crib; we found that installing it correctly was the most important aspect for getting it to work reliably. If you don't have wifi, the camera can also be plugged into your router with an ethernet cable (they provide a short one). OK, so now that it's up and running, and assuming you've installed it per instructions, you'll be able to take advantage of its awesome features. This is where the $150 price tag comes into play. First, the system has an awesome breathing/activity monitor that will let you watch your baby's breathing patterns. It uses infrared light to track the rise and fall of your baby's chest to monitor breathing and activity. Second, for peace of mind it can send you little alerts when things change, like breathing has slowed or sped up. Correct camera placement is critical for these features, so make sure to follow instructions. The way it works is that your video feed is streamed live to the Cocoon Cam cloud where machine learning algorithms securely process the video and assess breathing, and then that information is streamed continuously to the app on your phone. It worked surprisingly well given the complexity of the data streaming and analytics. We did get some anomalous readings in our testing, but mostly when the baby camera wasn't correctly installed above the crib, so it wasn't in clear view of the baby. It also didn't work well when our baby was sleeping on her side, or when her lovies were strewn across her back in random ways. It did work impressively well as a breathing monitor, even with a swaddled baby. Third, the system allows you to download and review videos and activity data, which is a nice touch. So this video baby monitor provides some advanced functionality for parents interested in monitoring their baby's breathing activity and having the flexibility of using their phone as a screen. If you're just looking for a video monitor that uses a phone app, but without the breathing monitor capability, check out some of the below options such as the Nest Cam (or the Palermo). Overall, this is a great baby video monitor. We're not completely certain it has the accuracy of a mat-based breathing monitor, and the reliability of the breathing status indicators wasn't perfect, especially if the camera isn't perfectly installed. And no remotely controlling the camera angle or zoom, and to get alerts on your phone (or download/review videos) you need to subscribe to a fee-based service once the 6-month trial ends. So it might be worth the cost for your specific needs, but it's not the best baby monitor out there, and probably not for everyone.

#8. Summer Infant Panorama Video Baby Monitor. Summer Infant has been making high quality, reliable baby monitors for many years. One problem with the Summer Infant monitors is that it's difficult to figure out which one has the features and quality you want, given the very wide range of options. Some are much better than others, and this is definitely one of the better ones we've tested. This color baby monitor has a high quality 5" high resolution LCD display, which is a similar quality to the Project Nursery monitor in terms of color, contrast, and brightness. When we first got our hands on this, we were excited that maybe it was a nice wide angle panorama camera. But it turns out what they meant by "panorama" is that you can remotely tilt, pan, and zoom. The panning does go nice and wide, allowing you to swing the camera side to side about 180-degrees. But the camera angle itself is no different than the other monitors on this list. That being said, this is a great baby monitor with some great features. In addition to being able to remotely pan, tilt, and zoom the camera, some of the best features were: 1) a subtle night light that you can turn on/off remotely, and can choose it to glow with a soft blue or red color, 2) a sensor that tells you the temperature of your baby's room at all times, 3) a sound-activated light bar on the top of the receiver that tells you when there's noise in the room (even when volume is off). We thought the big hand-held unit was great, with a convenient kick-stand to put it anywhere in the house, great battery life, and good range. We were able to walk around in the backyard with this unit and still get a good, stable image. Note that you can add an extra camera to this, and it will cycle through the two cameras automatically (it does not do split-screen to see both at once). Downfalls? Well, the night vision isn't quite as good as with higher-ranked monitors on this list, and even the lowest volume level seemed really loud for sleeping parents. Also, even though the screen is nice and big, the video quality is sub-par relative to several other options on this list. Overall, this is a great addition to our best baby monitor list, as it has great features and falls the middle of the price range. For about the same price, we'd go with the Infant Optics or Samsung option, unless you value the larger screen size.

#9. Summer Infant Baby Touch 3.5" Video Baby Monitor. Another Summer Infant baby monitor option, not quite as great as most others on this list, but definitely a trusted and reliable model. In our testing, one of the first things we noticed about this baby monitor was the sleek mobile-phone-size touch-screen reminiscent of the older iPhones. What's nice about this form factor is that it slips easily into your pocket like a mobile phone. Many of the others need to be clipped to your belt or waist, as they are quite a bit too thick or large for the pocket. The actual video display is modestly sized, coming in at 3.5" diagonal viewing area. This is the same size as the Infant Optics model. And it has some great features. It has remote pan (side-to-side adjust), tilt (up/down adjust), and zooming capability. Two-way communication so you can hear baby, and talk back to baby (maybe sing a lullaby, or whisper something to help soothe your baby). The system is also expandable to up to 4 cameras. Each additional camera is about $99, and you can place them in various locations around the home and toggle between them with the video unit. In our tests, the battery lasted about 4-5 hours when off the charger (and being used), and charged back to full capacity in only a couple hours. We didn't think the picture quality was as good as most other options on this list, nor was the sound. We also hooked it up to multiple cameras and used the "scan" feature which rotated through the various cameras once every 8 seconds. In our opinion, it took a bit too long to switch to a particular camera. It was also pretty loud when we remotely adjusted the pan/tilt of the camera. Also, it's worth noting that the pan feature doesn't seem to work when it's zoomed in. So overall, you're getting a good form factor, a reliable camera, but not the best image quality. For about $150, we think you are getting a ton of bang of the buck!

#10. Nest Cam Indoor Security and Baby Monitor Camera. This is a powerful solution for the relatively computer savvy parents who want flexibility, accessibility, and convenience. This is not just a baby monitor, this is a wireless video camera that can be placed anywhere and will communicate with computers and smart phones. Install the Dropcam App and view your baby through your cell phone no matter where you are. Want to check in on the babysitter while you're out on date night to make sure your baby is napping on time? Want to move the camera to monitor the dog or your home while you're away? Easy, and with the 130-degree wide angle lens, you can place it in even small rooms and maintain a good field of view. If you're away from home, you can also set it up to alert you to any movement: it will send an alert to your phone (or an email) along with a photo of what's going on. Like many baby-oriented video monitors, it also supports two-way communication with a built-in microphone and speaker, has 8x digital zoom, and has great night vision. It also has 1080p quality video, day and night. But it's also a bit expensive for a camera-only system, coming in at about $165. This is a powerful and flexible system that has a very high quality color and night vision camera, a wide field of view, access to cloud computing, and tons of convenient bells and whistles. This is not your mom's baby monitor. However, there are some requirements here: you need wireless internet in your home, and it needs to be rather high speed to support streaming high quality video and audio feeds. You also will need to load an app onto your phone (iPhone or Android) or a software package onto your computers (Windows or Macs) in order to access the device. If you ask us, this is one of the best and most flexible solutions for baby monitoring. It's a bit lower on our list because because it's not technically a baby monitor so it doesn't include things like sleep mode (turn on only in response to noise), and there is no dedicated bed-side monitor for it. It's an all-purpose camera that you can place anywhere and use as a baby monitor when needed. We also don't like that you need to subscribe to the Nest Aware for $10/month if you want to remove annoying banner ads on the app or software package. After paying $165+ for this, you would think the app would be included without annoying ads?

#11. Safe Baby Tech Baby Video Monitor. Searching for a big-screen video baby monitor that will stay put in one place, like on your bedside table, in the kitchen, or living room? And won't break the bank? Then this is the one for you. It has a sleek and truly large 7" display, that looks like a digital picture frame, and is about the size of an iPad Mini. We found the video to have a great quality signal, the monitor to be high resolution for good visibility, and the night vision to work reasonably well (it's grayscale, not greens). It was also really easy to setup, simply plug in the camera, and plug in the video monitor, and you're all set. It comes with great features: it has an integrated two-way intercom system, a sleep mode that dims the screen but leaves on the audio, adjustable volume, and adjustable wireless channels to ensure signal clarity even with interference from other devices. In our test, we found everything really easy to learn and use, and really enjoyed the "talk" feature that allowed us to talk to our baby in the other room. There were three primary drawbacks, however: first, it is a stationary system, meaning that the display does not have a battery. This is the biggest drawback relative to the above systems. You can move it from room to room, however, as long as you bring the (albeit short) power cord. Second, unlike most others on this list, it does not allow you to remotely control the camera tilt or zoom. Finally, the overall quality isn't up to par with the others on the list. The sound quality wasn't so great, the image sometimes choppy, and the night vision somewhat poor quality relative to others. Overall, it has some great features, and if you're looking to save a bunch of money for a decent video monitor that isn't super versatile, this gives you pretty great bang for the buck!

#12. Gynoii WiFi Wireless Tilt/Pan Baby Monitor. This is an awesome and versatile option for anyone looking for a baby video monitor that uses your existing device (Android, iPhone, iPad) as the screen. Simply plug it in, install the app on your phone, and you're off to the races! And it has tons of great features. You can stream high definition (720p) daytime or nighttime (night vision) video and audio, or use audio only. It can send sound and motion alerts right to your device. It has two-way (intercom style) talk, so you can listen to your baby and your baby can listen to you. Unique on this list, it also has time lapse video so you can review what your little one was up to during the night - watch them roll around and hug their blankies and lovies! When we tested this unit, this time lapse review was my favorite feature! It also has remote pan and tilt, so if it's not in the perfect position (or your baby isn't!) you can remotely move the camera to get a better view. It also has some unique access features. For example, it uses highly secure encrypted data transmission, and allows more than one app user to watch simultaneously (so mom can watch from work while grandma puts baby down for a nap!). That's a lot of awesome features, and it only runs about $100 online. That's cheaper than most others on this list - but remember, it does not come with a screen, so you need to use your own device. We tested it on a Samsung Galaxy S5, iPhone 5, iPad, and an LG G4 phone. It worked really well on all of them, so we were impressed. So why isn't this higher on our list? Only because it's not an all-in-one package and you need to install the app and use your own device to watch the video. Also, the software is a bit cumbersome to set up. For instance, if your wifi name has any spaces or special characters in it, it won't recognize it at all, you will need to rename your wireless network. Fortunately that's rare, but did affect our testing. We saw some good connectivity performance, with it rarely dropping off our wifi. Overall, we like it!

More Details on Factors we Considered:

Clarity of Daytime and Night Vision: When wireless baby video monitors were first introduced onto the market they used somewhat outdated display technology that made for a grainy, distorted, and often unreliable picture. Newer versions use a liquid crystal display similar to the ones used in your smart phone, so they tend to have very nice color contrast and high resolution, and are also substantially more reliable. All of the ones we list below have high quality displays, and we do not recommend some of the relatively old fashioned ones that can still be found on the market. Of course, night vision doesn't use color - so the display will be either grayscale or show a slightly green hue. That's important to keep in mind before you try it out for the first time; not even military special operations have color night vision, so don't expect anything amazing from a baby monitor!

Portable Base Unit with Good Range: Babies go to bed earlier than parents, and they also nap during the day. Unless you want to spend your time sitting next to the base unit watching the video stream, you're going to want a unit that has far range and good battery life. This will let you take the unit and, say, take out the trash or let the dog out, while still being able to see your baby.

Adjustable Camera Pan/Tilt/Zoom: One of the most annoying things that can happen when you're using a video baby monitor is closing the door and then turning on the video monitor only to realize that your camera isn't aimed at the baby at all, and you can't see a thing. Most of the systems would require you to go back into your baby's room and manually adjust the camera. Some of the systems we review below have remotely adjustable camera angles, so you can pan side-to-side, tilt the camera angle upward/downward, and zoom in or out, without having to go back into your baby's room. Super convenient.

Interchangeable Camera Lenses: Some of the new systems have interchangeable lenses to best suit your baby's room. If you have the camera positioned close to the baby, like on the edge of the crib or on a nearby dresser, you might prefer the wide angle camera. If you have the camera positioned relatively far from the baby, like on a bookshelf on the other side of the room, you might prefer the regular narrow angle camera. Flexibility is nice, particularly if you end up rearranging the room or have to move things out of the reach of a growing menace.

Intuitive and User Friendly Menu and Features: What good are 25 fancy features if you can't figure out how to navigate the menu and customize settings or change options? All of the wireless video baby monitors reviewed below have great utility, with high video quality and a nice feature set, but some of them have relatively high usability, which comes in handy when you don't want to spend too much time shuffling through menus to change one silly setting.

Integrated Intercom System: Some of the new systems have a two-way intercom feature built in, allowing you to talk to your baby (sing a lullaby?), or allow the parents to talk to each other ("can you bring more wipes please!?") without yelling down the stairs or hallway.

Encrypted Wireless Communications: Here's something creepy and strange - there are reports of people tapping into baby monitors and getting some bizarre pleasure from watching your baby sleep, or watching you feed the baby in the middle of the night. A few of the manufacturers have included wireless encryption on their systems to make this much less likely.

Reliability. This is a tough one, as it requires long-term knowledge of system reliability, through thick and thin. There are many baby monitors on the market that start out excellent but tend to glitch out or completely fail within the first several months of ownership. This is especially the case for many unrecognized brand names that are saturating the market. All of the best video monitors that make it onto our list have withstood the test of time, lasting at least 6 months, and in some cases several years at this point (like the Infant Optics option!) .

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